I believe that Kramer wrote Normal Heart because he wanted to display the tension within the gay community, and between the gay community with the heterosexual norm community. Normal Heart is about the HIV/AIDS epidemic crisis that was occurring within the gay community, especially in New York. He wanted to demonstrate how the minority community had to come together to get their voice heard, that the heterosexual normative community was not worried about them at all so they had to shake the table. I believe it was adapted as an HBO film so it could reach a larger audience to stress the importance the AIDS epidemic and how the gay community had to come together to combat it. HBO is also known to take on controversial and minority projects so I also see how this could fit what they target.